The present invention relates to a character recognition method and apparatus and, more particularly, to a character recognition method and apparatus which perform character recognition at real time based on input strokes of a character image.
The typical methods for recognizing a character image in a conventional apparatus are as following:
(1) Method utilizing the order of making strokes of a character image in writing and its figure;
(2) Method utilizing the positional relation of input strokes; and
(3) Method analyzing the change of position of a stroke in a time sequence by Fourier transform.
In method (1), there is a problem when strokes of the character image to be recognized are inputted in wrong order. To cope with this problem, expected orders of strokes for characters which may be inputted in wrong order are registered in a dictionary, however, it has not been effective so far.
In method (2), there is the problem that it is difficult to define the positions of strokes of characters for numerous user.
In method (3), there is the problem that a wave is irregularly changed by effects of the order of strokes.
Furthermore, in these methods, when a plurality of character images are inputted, it is difficult to segment character images in an input apparatus which does not have a frame to define each of inputted character images.